As a fan of the book “The Maze Runner”, it is hard for me to say specifically how I felt about the movie because of all of the mixed emotions that it brought on. To summarize, the main character, Thomas, wakes up in a metal box with no memories of who he is or why he’s there; the situation brings on immediate panic but still manages to intensify further as he is introduced to the world of The Glade where the only inhabitants are a group of teenage boys, and the only official rules are against hurting each other, being lazy and going into the maze. Thomas immediately starts to face trouble in this new world both because of his inability to lose his curiosity over the maze despite the other boys’ warnings and the presence of a certain person from his past that shows up later in the book. At that point, several events occur that change “the Gladers” forever.
The movie started out with an attention grabbing storyline, capturing the first, brutally intense moments of Thomas’ time in The Glade almost exactly like the book. At a certain point, though, something shifted and the movie didn’t fit some of the physical descriptions and events that appeared in the original story. Fortunately for the movie though, the actors were one redeeming quality of it, specifically Thomas Brodie-Sangster who played Newt, and did well at developing the movie’s intensity. This intensity was also built by the fact that, down to the last second there was some kind of conflict going on whether internal or external. However, the fast-paced action sometimes proved to be a bad thing, as it overshadowed important details and individual personalities that were key factors of the book. In my final evaluation, the movie is enjoyable if you like a lot of action and has good, but not exactly famous, actors, yet it deviates from the details of the book and doesn’t seem like the best option for young children based on the fact that it includes a few cuss words and a multitude of disturbing moments.